Some airlines bagging luggage limits for troops

Battling insurgents in Afghanistan is often nasty and dangerous.But for reasons not entirely clear, U.S. troops seem to be gettinghassled, coming and going, by their own country's airlines.

This week finds Delta Airlines apologizing to service members forthe second time in 10 weeks. This time it's for charging a group ofsoldiers returning home $200 for a fourth checked bag - for a totalof $2,800, the soldiers estimated.

Then, after some of the soldiers, who were on a flight fromBaltimore to Atlanta, complained in a YouTube video - since removed -that went viral on the Internet, Delta announced on its blog that itwas changing its three-bag policy for the military. The airline saidit would allow military personnel traveling on orders to check up tofive bags in first and business classes.

But it seemed for a while that troops flying coach could only getthree for free. Someone must have figured out that most troops tendnot to fly first class, so the airline then said four bags would befine even for those traveling coach.

The hubbub reportedly sparked a number of airlines to affirm orchange baggage policies so that troops traveling on orders couldcheck four or five bags for free. Delta is offering to compensatethe soldiers affected in the most recent situation.

Loop Fans may recall our March 29 column about Marines stationedin Hawaii being hit with higher ticket prices - up to $900 in onecase, we were told - when the Pentagon changed their deploymentdates.

That change meant the Marines and sailors had to rebook their pre-deployment flights home before they headed to one of the mostdangerous places in Afghanistan.

Several airlines - including U.S. Airways, United Airlines andDelta - waived the $150 change fee, but apparently would not waivethe substantially higher ticket prices.

Seems like it may be time for everyone to get together and sortall this out.

The blistering heat this week beckons us to area beaches to cooloff. And when we hit the surf, some of us will doubtless rememberBruce, the giant shark in the movie "Jaws," and we'll look around.

Do not be afraid. Unless you're somehow mistaken for a seal, youshould be fine. Turns out, sharks are less dangerous to humans thanwe are to them, according to a new book by our colleague JulietEilperin.

"They're not exactly cuddly," she explained, "but only a smallpercentage are dangerous. Like your average House member."

In the book, Eilperin charts the complicated shark/humanrelationship through the years and takes us on several fascinatingtrips, including one in which she faces down a great white off thecoast of South Africa and another adventure canoeing with a PapuaNew Guinean who summons sharks in the sea.

Sometimes things got really dicey. Take, for example, the timeshe encountered Rosie O'Donnell out driving a motorboat with friendsoff Star Island near Miami.

As it turns out, overfishing has caused the world's sharkpopulation to plummet dramatically. Humans are eating them - not theother way around. There's talk on the Hill of legislation that wouldban shark fin imports to the United States. And international actionis likely, with several countries close to adopting new sharkfishing restrictions in the next few weeks.

The book is called "Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden Worldof Sharks." Out Tuesday.

New State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland held an "on therecord" briefing for reporters flying with Secretary of StateHillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday en route to a meeting in AbuDhabi with members of a coalition working to push Libyan dictatorMoammar Gaddafi from power.

A promising start. Reporters always like on-the-record as opposedto the much overused background designation of "senior official."

The only problem was that she uttered only about 200 words,beginning with: "Okay. So we are headed to Abu Dhabi for the thirdContact Group meeting. As you know, these have been happeningmonthly. . ."

Then reporters heard from people who were "on background" andidentified only as "senior government officials" named One, Two andThree. (No, not Larry, Moe and Curly.) We suspect they were StateDepartment people but we weren't on the plane.

So, according to a transcript, we read that "SENIOR GOVERNMENTOFFICIAL TWO" starts by telling us: "Okay. As [Senior GovernmentOfficial One] said, this is the third meeting. . ."

Wait a minute! Isn't that what Nuland just told us?

Back in the old days, Secretaries Colin Powell and CondoleezzaRice would brief the traveling press - on the record - beforeevery stop.

As expected, President Obama has tapped career Foreign Serviceofficer Earl Anthony "Tony" Wayne, now deputy ambassador to Kabul,to be ambassador to Mexico. Wayne, whose diplomatic career startedin 1975, served in a number of jobs in Europe and was assistantsecretary of state for economic and business affairs for six yearsbefore becoming ambassador to Argentina in 2006.

Wayne's first task probably will be to patch things up withMexico's President Felipe Calderon, whose relationship with formerambassador Carlos Pascual was, at best, rocky. Pascual, who's nowspecial envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs, resigned in March after WikiLeaks put out a cable in which hecomplained of incoherence in Mexico's fight against drug cartels.Calderon was not happy.

Also, Obama has picked prominent conservationist Rebecca R.Wodder, who has been president and chief executive of AmericanRivers since 1995, to be assistant secretary of interior for fishand wildlife.

Looks like a chunk of the Obama National Economic Council staffis decamping to Harvard this fall. The departing group includes:Sarah Cannon, Bryan Jung and Kyle Watkins to Harvard BusinessSchool; and Pascal Noel, who is going for a doctorate in economics.Eric Lesser, who worked for departing Council of Economic Adviserschief Austan Goolsbee, is off to Harvard Law School.

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